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Guest column: Health workers should get bouquets, not brickbats
The coronavirus pandemic has been mentally and physically taxing for healthcare workers who have had to work round the clock and at times without leave for weeks on end, however, far from appreciating them for their exemplary service violence against doctors is on the rise
The fight against the virus is not over yet as the pandemic continues to torment the world. The second wave of the coronavirus pandemic had devastated the country, especially in the months of April and May, this year.
Amid all this, doctors, nurses, attendants and technicians have led the fight from the front. Few realise how stressful, physically tiring and mentally exhausting it can be to work in Covid wards. As cases surged and more hospitals were converted into Covid hospitals, the same workforce was stretched with longer duty hours and more workload.
At times, staff in intensive care units had to work on endless shifts without weekly offs. More often than not only two doctors had to manage around 100 to 150 patients. The stakes for healthcare workers were high as not only were they at risk of contracting the deadly virus themselves but they could also transmit the pathogen to their families.
As per the Indian Medical Association around 700 doctors have succumbed to Covid in the second wave, while 748 had succumbed last year. The figures will be all the more horrifying, if one were to include the fatalities reported among nurses and other healthcare workers, considering the size of the workforce. No wonder healthcare workers have been called frontline workers.
Periodically, we come across pieces by doctors and nurses chronicling the emotional upheaval they undergo as they witness the last moments of Covid patients. How emotionally taxing and hard it is to choose between two patients when only one ventilator is available. This often scars psyche and many healthcare workers have developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and have had to seek counselling.
Despite their punishing hours and personal sacrifices, healthcare workers are sadly not appreciated enough. Far from being appreciated, incidents of violence against them are on the rise. Relatives of patients have beaten up doctors at several hospitals across the country and some nursing homes have been vandalised. Just recently, a doctor in Assam was manhandled.
Things were worse at the outset of the pandemic when many doctors and nurses were barred from entering residential areas as it was feared that they could transmit the virus.
We must honour healthcare workers in any way we can. In several countries, fast-food chains would offer a free coffee or burger to healthcare workers who could furnish a valid identity card during the first and second waves. In India, IndiGo Airlines sent a pack of goodies to a healthcare worker, if any passenger wanted to send a note of appreciation to their favourite doctor or nurse. Earlier this year, ITC, a leading hotel chain had announced a hefty 50% discount on bookings in their hotels for all doctors as a gesture of appreciation for their contribution to the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
Last year, PM Modi had extolled the citizens to express gratitude to healthcare workers for their contributions during the pandemic. Such gestures are morale boosters. It is time that the contribution of doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers is acknowledged and appreciated in a more fitting manner.
dr_kochhar@hotmail.com
The writer is professor of gastroenterology at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh
